Hey everybody, we are back. It's been a little bit, but we are back and down among them and I am here with a new friend and I'm excited to talk to this new friend of mine because we've both got some stuff in common and she's got some great ideas that she's gonna share with us. Gwen Blumberg, welcome. I'm so glad you could be here with us. Thank you so much. Why don't you take a second, tell folks a little bit about, my pleasure. Tell folks a little bit about who you are, where you're at.
Sure, sure. My name is Gwen Blumberg and I am a first year librarian just outside of Boston in the community of Lincoln. It's a K-8 school. I've actually been in the district for a number of years. I first worked there as a reading interventionist and then a literacy coach. And then I served for eight years as the district literacy coordinator. And this is my first year as the K-8 school librarian. That is a really interesting trajectory.
mean, I see all the literacy tied together, but I, that you were looking at it sort of like from a coordinator perspective and then moving into the school library is a little bit different. How did that transition happen? Yeah, yeah. I should also say prior to being in the district that I am, I taught first grade in another district for four years and I also taught fourth and fifth grade in New York as a classroom teacher. So I've had this journey as a classroom teacher.
I was also an adjunct professor in the mixed in there and then from being a reading specialist to a literacy coach and then to that leadership position. I think what's really important to know about all of my work is that there's been this through line.
So even though my roles have changed over time, I have always been incredibly passionate about literacy and reading and writing and making sure that kids, A, have the skills that they need to read, the skills that they need to tell their own stories, and that they're seeing their lives represented in books and being able to share their own stories. in the stories that they write.
So I feel like my passion has stayed true all the time, but I also feel like I'm constantly trying to just explore it through different lenses.
And in my last role as the literacy coordinator, while I think that was really important work, it was just taking me further and further and further away from children and being able to actually do the work and have those relationships with kids and... I was just honestly really missing that and looking for like, do I still instill a love of books and learning without ever like working directly with kids? And so just thinking about like, what's that next step for me?
Being a librarian just seemed like the perfect thing. And so I started taking, you know, I thought, let me take some classes. Let me see how this will go. And then I feel like it's kind of lucky the librarian at the school where I was announced she was retiring and it was like, okay, here's my chance. Like let's go. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Man. Yeah. That, I mean, I'm right there with you with the importance of literacy and getting kids to want to read.
was an English teacher for 23, 24 years before I moved into the school library. So I'm right there with you. And I've got to say like the school library, it never even occurred to me as a career choice until our school librarian said, you know, I might be retiring in a couple of years and is this something you'd be interested in? And then I was like, why did this never occur to me? And now that I'm in it, it's just like you're saying, it's the perfect sort of combination.
To my mind, the school library is what the whole school should be. Like kids are there because they want to be there. They're finding the things they're interested in. They're pursuing their interests. And that's like, why are we not doing that all over the place? But that's a whole other conversation. I know, right? It's the best. And I'm fortunate that I knew the librarian whose role that I had to go through the whole process, you know, it was not a shoe-in kind of thing.
You I had to interview and do the demo lessons and everything. But after I was hired, the librarian later on, you know, she actually gave me a hug and said, like, I always knew you were a librarian. And that was just, it just was like, just filled my bucket, like just filled me to the tip top with coziness. that's so wonderful! think that she's right. Like, I feel joy. This is my first year and I feel a joy every day in this role. So just, I'm really happy. I'm just really happy.
And I'm so excited to talk about this with you. Yes, absolutely. Well, and I want to dwell for a second on the fact that this is your first year because I'm a pretty new school librarian too. Like I went into the library and I was, I, for some reason I have trouble remembering the exact when it was, but it was only in January 22 that I stepped into the library space for the first time.
And so it's, there's been a lot of stuff that has gone on between now and then, but it's, mean, still kind of figuring out like my library space. My middle school didn't have a library space until a year ago, December. So I was working out of a different space and trying to connect kids with books and stuff. like, even as a new librarian, I'm now a new, librarian, because now I've got a new space that I'm trying to get up and set up and run.
So like, I think you and I are really coming from this from a very, we don't know what we don't know and we're enjoying the process as we go. absolutely. you know, like you said, talk about another conversation, like the whole idea of the space and how the space, you know, it's like, there's the kids, there's the books, there's the teaching, and then there's the physical space of it as well. And I find that to be super exciting.
And yeah, so I think that's kind of cool that you get to like, you know, a little bit more and then you get to go back and revisit, you know, what is that as you define a learning space. Yeah, yeah. it's, mean, that's one of the great things that I've been enjoying is kind of figuring out, okay, this isn't working. So let's try something else. this worked really well. Let's see how we can adapt that more and get more of that going on.
So I'm sure you're, kind of seeing those kinds of things as well as you're playing around with different kinds of stuff. Yeah. And I love that you were willing to come and share, even though this is just your first year in the library, because I, I, Sometimes I think a lot of people feel like, well, what I do isn't special. What I do isn't cool. What I do, I'm not one of those all-star people that you see every, you know, article is about this person or that person.
And that's not, in my mind, that's not what school librarianship is about. It's not about being a rock star. It's not about like, are you published in 1900 places? It's about, do you love what you're doing? And you love what you're doing and you love it so much that you're willing to share with others, which I think is so wonderful and so important. that we do that. I agree that the community is, that's, especially when you're the only one of you in your building.
I mean, I'm lucky there's another full-time librarian in my district, but you you can be kind of like a little bit of a unicorn in some places. And I experienced that as a literacy coordinator and I was the only one in the district. So I quickly learned, especially during the pandemic, how much I needed other people like me. to talk to and bounce ideas off of and to share resources. And I became very close with my literacy leader network. And we're still very close.
And I will say that they happened to all be women. Those women sent me flowers and a picture book when I was hired for this job because they knew how much it meant to me. And we just became so close and we are still very close. So we actually met through a blue sky chat. you and I and you know, that's and so it was like, I'm new, I need more people. And I'm also trying out this new social media platform, like how do I rebuild the network that I had as a literacy coordinator?
How do I build that kind of network over again? Because we are stronger together and I am very much like we should be sharing. Why should everyone be creating everything on their own? I think that's just silly, you know, and we can just like grow each other right. each other's ideas so we have more time to spend with kids. So yay sharing! Absolutely, yeah.
And you know, it's funny, I've been in education for quite a while and as an English teacher, you know, once in a while I'd share something with a colleague, but I feel like school librarians bring sharing to a whole other level. Like, people are so generous and so friendly and so willing to say like, here's a thing I tried that didn't work, but maybe if you tweak it, it'll work. And you know, just like everybody's always willing to give you their materials or give you their ideas.
And it's just, it's such a, such a, caring community for each other as well as for the students in the profession. So it's been a really wonderful home to sort of settle into the past couple of years. So welcome. Now you had mentioned at some point that you have been bouncing around from different levels, different grade levels and stuff too. And now you're in a K8, right? Correct. That's correct. are you you're the librarian for all the kids k8? I am, I am.
So what I do is I have a teaching load. I teach library classes for kindergarten through fifth grade. And six through eight do not have an assigned library time. So they can come in and I do, there's kids coming in. That's one of the things that's really surprised me about the library. It's just like, how hoppin' that place is all day long. So even when I don't have a library class, you know, there's kids coming in and all day long to exchange books and so forth.
So 6.8 does not have designated library times. So I've had to try to find different ways to get to those kiddos. And so one of the things that I did was I have the library open during recess time. And I have had as many as, so we have a grade five, a five, six and a seven, eight, like they have, they're broken into two pieces. But I think I've had my max is 104 middle school kids in one day, not all at one time, but in those two separate blocks.
So the library, yeah, can be a really hoppin' for middle school kids. And that is not a like, you have to, like a shush, shush kind of, I'm not a like the library should be quiet kind of librarian. I actually don't know that many people who are those kind of librarians. I feel like that's just such a stereotype. Yeah. Most of the kids are, some kids are coming to read and I have a lot of board games.
It's a screen free zone unless the kiddos have like specific permission for me to be on screens and I can actually see where they are. Cause I have a very large space and just with it's just with that many kids. I just want to make sure everything's, you know, all good. lots of kids, lots of board games. I also have lot of Legos and blocks and magnetiles and things like that and the middle school kids do that.
Like I have, especially, I'm thinking of one eighth grade boy who doesn't come out all the time, but he comes periodically and he pulls those Legos out and he sits there and he builds. So I try to have us make a space for the middle school kids to like be hang, collaborate like all of those other type of life skills that we want them to do as far as becoming like communicators and those types of things. And I am noticing that some of those kids are asking for book recommendations.
So is everyone checking out a book? No. But are a lot of kids feeling like it's a cool place to be in the library? Yes. And that is my goal. I'm also spending a lot of time right now trying to kind of pour a lot of energy into the sixth graders. because those kids are just coming off of remembering what it was like to have library class. And so those kids are very aware of what's different in the library. It looks very different than last year.
Just naturally, of course, I'm a different person than the last librarian. And I'm like, I've talked to my administration, it's like those sixth graders will become seventh graders and then become eighth graders. So in a couple of years, I'll know the whole school. Mm-hmm. I'll know them well and I'm really excited about that. Yeah, it's gotta be quite a challenge kind of managing such a wide range of grade levels and ability levels and skill levels. Like that's a lot going on. Yes, yes, it is.
And I'm finding I'm doing a lot of weeding of the collection right now. And the collection that I inherited was very much split in a lot of ways, like nonfiction for youngers, nonfiction for olders, which, you know, that was working for no disrespect, you know, every librarian has their way of doing things. But for me, that is just not feeling like the most efficient way to do things. So I'm kind of putting things back together and then reading and what do I have and what are kids asking for?
So that is challenging, I think, to be like, how in that space, not wanting to deny all, you you can't have that or, but knowing that, wow, like what's appropriate for a first grader, you know, and what an eighth grader might want, you know, so it's just. And I hate to that word appropriate, you know, because there's choice and all of those kinds of things. But let's just face it, like there's a big difference developmentally between a first grader and an eighth grader.
And if you're in a K-5, I know that even K-5 librarians struggle between like what do kindergarten kiddos want versus fifth graders want. So in a K-8, you know, that's just magnified. absolutely. We've got some tensions about what goes in four six versus seven eight, what goes in five six versus seven eight. And, know, I can't imagine then having to take that and divide it down even into K one, two, three. Like there's so many gradations there.
And like you said, appropriate, I try not to use the word appropriate generally, but like just the developmental relevancy of so many of those materials. is gonna be so vastly different for those kids. So yeah, I don't envy you that challenge. I will say that. Yeah, and I feel like there's also things that are in the collection, you know, that's older.
It's like things from 20 years ago, you know, books look different, you know, and, you know, that because things are screens and we have so many more images, you know, so like things that are very text heavy, even though the content might be, you know, at the reading level or the type of information that the older kids might want. They want things with images in them. So there's just all kinds of things.
And there, I feel like that is, you know, I'm so passionate about books, you know, and I was purchasing books for the district for reading purposes. So I have, you know, some idea about how that goes. But that's just a very, very, very labor intensive process. Yeah. wrap my mind around it, just trying to imagine it. I'm just like, nope, I'm out.
So you are in your first year, but you're teaching lessons, you're building the library space, and you're going to share with us, I think, a little bit about an interactive history lesson, right? So, sorry. That's okay. Actually, what I'm going to share with you today, as I'm going to share, basically like how I've been approaching strengthening some basic library skills with the goal of increasing independence and engagement. Do you wanna?
again, I'm looking at the wrong stupid thing on my stupid sheet and that's my fault. So I'm going to do a little trimming. Yes. just pause and back up. So Gwen, you are in your first year in this space, but you are working on really helping your students kind of navigate that space. And you're talking about how you've got to think about your materials, but also you're helping them to build up sort of their independence. You're helping them to figure out how do they find what they're looking for?
How do they take part in the library as a space and as an activity, as a thing for them to be a part of? what are some of the, how did you sort of lead your students into? kind of understanding what's going on with your space now that you've stepped into this space.
Sure, So one of the first things that I did, and I actually did this this past summer and I did it with the other librarian in my district is we use Follett Destiny as our LMS and we were using the both schools were using, do you know that Steve, is that what you use Follett? We used Follet for a bit. We are now using Access-it. I prefer it, but that's what we're working with right now. Okay. So we used FALA and we were using the more traditional display.
So not a lot of images, just not very visually appealing. And what I was just saying about like the visual appeal that is so important to kids. the librarian, I had learned about this in one of my graduate classes about Destiny Discover, where we had to do a project about different LMSs. And so I really wanted to flip to using Destiny Discover. So I did that over the summer with my, the librarian in our other K-8 school. And so I was like, this is great. The kids are going to love this.
Like one of the, so one of the things that I need to do in the early on is show the kids like how to use this new, how to use this tool. So as I rolled that out, which the kids were excited by what it looked like, you know, that they could see recently added titles, most popular titles, all of those different kinds of things. it became clear to me very quickly that the kids didn't really have a strong grasp of once they could even look something up in the catalog.
And there's other things that happened prior to that, but I'm kind of like plopping us in the middle of this, like what exactly was a call number? How do you read a call number? Where might that thing be in the library? And then where do you find it?
And so I found that like, particularly like all kids need that, but particularly like thinking about that grade three through five zone, which is, that, you know, where the kids can, you know, they're much more independent and being able to do those things. When they wanted something, I had to like run around and help them find it.
So I thought I have got to start to grow these skills in kiddos so that to increase their independence and increase their engagement and not just for their time with me in the library, but these are like today and everyday skills. So maybe, you know, another library isn't organized like that, but it's all about, you know, this is what we do. Like we teach kids how to find things. So I started to think about like her trajectory of like, what do my kids need to even know?
So instead of sharing one lesson plan today, I was going to kind of just share with you like the series of steps that I went through to try to increase independence in my kids. So The first thing I said is like, it was almost like I did a little pre-test, but I didn't mean to, you know? Like I learned like, wow, you know, like we need to shore this up. So I learned like the kids need to know alphabetical order.
So once they could find something like their alphabetical order skills were not as strong as they needed to be. So, you know, I found a funny book about... alphabetical order, totally fictitious, and you know did that as a read aloud and they loved it. Like even fifth graders, know, they love that silly stuff. If you create a type of atmosphere where it's okay to be silly and so I started with that.
You know, I had some very basic smart board lessons that I made just like put it dragging things into order and the fifth graders for example, like they were, it's not that they didn't have any skills for this. Mm-hmm. just was not super solid. also kids aren't using dictionaries the way we did when you and I were kids. You don't need to do that anymore. I had created some smart board lessons. I used alphabet strips that the kids could use.
I then quickly made little stacks of books that I pulled off of the shelves and I differentiated those types of stacks. So. Some stacks would have like an A, a B, a C, a D, and an E. And some would have like A and then three books with S, you know, with a different second letter, a different third letter, you know. So I had different kind of differentiated stacks based on what I was quickly learning about the kids.
You know, I gave them, I made little sets of popular book characters, you know, in alphabetical order and had them lay them down, you know, lay them on the floor. Now you're partner has another stack, you know, and if I saw kids were doing well, that'd be like, put your stacks together. So just trying to really get them to do different reps and flex those muscles so that they could quickly, you know, and I would tell them like alphabetical order is not the end game here.
And I think that's really important with kids is that they know like, why am I doing this somewhat abstract thing, you know, it's so that when you want a book, you'll know where to go, you know, that Rick Riordan is going to come before, you know, well, well, well after Sharon Draper instead of, you know, going, you know, kids were painstakingly going shelf by shelf by shelf by shelf going down. And that's just, that's, that's not efficient.
Yeah, and it's funny because like so many times and I've got middle schoolers and they have a hard time figuring out where is this going to be on the shelf when I'm looking for Tolkien? Why am I not looking at the first shelf? Like because we've got an alphabet. Like it's a skill that needs reinforcement and it's something I have found. And I mean, I kind of knew this as a teacher, but when I was teaching English, like I knew there were certain things that I had to cover.
Like it was in my curriculum. In the library, there's not really a curriculum. So I see a much broader sort of set of skills and knowledge and abilities. And I am constantly finding myself going, how do you not know that? And having to readjust and say, okay, they don't know this. So take a step back and how do we make this more user friendly for them? them? 100%, 100%. And I think like the more we can make it fun, and I think it's really important that kids know like, why am I doing this?
And, you know, for my time as a literacy coordinator, like I was always, you know, when I was working with teachers saying like, this is, it's today and every day. Like I'm teaching you this skill, it's like today and every day, it's important that we are today and every day. So I try to approach that with the library, you know, as well. because it's not their fault if they don't know something.
It's like we have to teach them and we just have to think about this continuum of how do we scaffold that? How do we give kids lots and lots of reps to do things? It was called Shots on Net. How do we let them take multiple shots on net, multiple ways of doing the same kind of thing? So it's like that alphabetical order, like I'm putting these little character cards in order. I'm putting a stack of books in order. there's this really cool.
game, this shelver game that another librarian shared with me, speaking of sharing librarians and like that you can like put the little books in order and you can check that. like lots of different ways to do the same kind of thing. I also tried to talk, please go. Yeah, no, I love it.
that's one of the things that I love about the library too, is that I feel like most classrooms, you don't have the time and the luxury of giving the kids multiple opportunities over and over and over again to try a thing. without them getting a grade, without them getting an assessment on it, without them, you you've got, this is your last chance to do this, because we've got to move on to our next thing.
And the library kind of gives you that opportunity to say like, okay, you didn't get it this way, that's okay, let's readjust and we'll figure out a different way to go at this. And really kind of takes that pressure, that expectation of, you should already know XYZ when you walk in the door and you should be picking up. ABC to go with it. And if you don't, then you're messing up and you're to get a bad grade. Like, and just take all that away and just say like, okay, you don't know this.
And it's so, I love that you said when they don't know something, that's not their fault. And we've got to, that's on us to say, okay, great. Let's figure this out then. And I feel sometimes, especially, and I work in a district, I work in a school that has a lot of veteran teachers who've been there for quite a while. And so, I more often than not will hear, I had to teach them this thing again, or my gosh, how do they not know this? Why am I spending time on this? And like, again, I get it.
You've got this certain amount of time. You've got a finite amount of classroom minutes and you're trying to get through all this curriculum stuff. But I feel like we're really doing students a disservice when we, A, assume that they should know stuff and B, when we get grouchy with them for not knowing stuff because that's just turning them off. Like if you come at them and like, geez, you're dumb for not knowing this kid.
Well, you think they're going to, yeah, are they going to be interested in picking that skill up? No, absolutely not. giving them those as many opportunities as they need, I think, is such a wonderful part of the library world that we can just, okay, didn't work great. Let's figure out a new thing.
Yeah, and something I'm thinking about is you're saying that like there's two things like, A, I just think like what a privilege that like the kiddos that I have like my kindergarten kids this year, you know, I'm to be your librarian. I hope you know the whole time you're at this school, like I'm going to get to watch these kids grow. And you know what? So like I've got a third grader, know, or a couple third graders, you know, like they're having trouble with this. That's okay.
Like we'll work on it. Like we'll keep working on it. So, you know, there isn't that time pressure and that I get to work with them over time. And it's just so funny when you said that, like, what do you, what do mean? You don't know this. I feel like I got the gift of learning this very early on in my career. Cause my first year teaching, I taught fourth grade and then the next year I looped.
So I had those kids for two years and there would be times in fifth grade when I'd be going over something and they'd be like, what? We never learned this. And I was like, guys, dudes, I was your teacher. And so it's like, just because you've taught it doesn't mean that they remember it because you think about like all the things that are coming at them so quickly, like, and we don't remember everything as adults either. So I just feel like... I always can go back to that.
It was a very long time ago, but when I'd be like, I actually read you that book. But how many other things did they do? but how many other things did they do? so, yeah, so just like, I really think it's a privilege that I'll get to be a part of these kids' lives. I loved that when I was a literacy coach, that same kind of thing. I'm demoing lessons in kindergarten classrooms and. I would get to know those kids all the way up.
And that's one of the things that I really missed is that I would see kids in the hallway and think, I don't know who that kid is. And that kid has absolutely no idea who I am. And I really wanted to be an active part of kids' lives.
Yeah, well, and it's a little bit of a tangent, but since we're kinda talking about like the kids remembering stuff from year to year, I have to wonder if our current students are not facing a really much more uphill battle than we did when we were their age, because I was recently reading some stuff about how we need time when our brain is not engaged with something. We need boredom in order for our brain to remember stuff.
Like that being bored is part of the process of putting stuff into your long-term memory. And I feel like so many of our kids these days are constantly on a phone, in a game, doing a thing, and they don't know what boredom is. They can't handle boredom. And so I wonder, it's gonna be really interesting to see in a couple of years if we did a couple of studies on how much can you remember now versus a couple of years from now.
I have a feeling a lot of our students right now are gonna really shrug with remembering those earlier pieces of information that should have transfer it into long-term memory and maybe didn't make it there. So I think this conversation about how we can, we have to think about what do they know and do we need to reteach stuff because I think that's gonna be a much bigger part of the job going forward.
think so too, and I also think it's really important too that we think about, thinking about how it was when we were kids, that longing for some people, like, the good old days, that kind of thing. It's is it engaging? And it's like, are we making things engaging and that make kids want to learn and that are motivating and exciting? Because kids that are having fun are learning, and we know that that learning is going to stick a lot more. So making it a game.
Yes. versus like kill and drill and you know like those kinds of things like honestly I probably didn't stick for us either but we you know just like I think there was much more of an emphasis on compliance you know and compliance over engagement and so like you know when I say like not a silent library like I think the libraries were probably pretty silent you know like you know what saying like there was much more of a like desks and rows compliance, that type of a mindset.
you know, thankfully, I think like that's not how we want I think there's probably, you know, there's we know there's still pockets of places that are like that, you know, and there's different styles and so forth. But like, the more engaging and hands on and fun and play based and I think the more things are going to get into kids long term memories. That's just my two cents. I think you're totally, I'm right there with you.
We're singing, you're singing to the choir on this one, preaching to the choir, preaching to the choir on this one. But sorry, I have derailed us terribly, so we're gonna swing it back around here. So. I want to go, go, please. So I was going to say, so if we go back to what I was just saying about, um, like play-based and games. like, those are some of the basic skills that I wanted to set out to teach the kids right away. Like, how do I look something up?
How do I, you know, what is alphabetical order? I started teaching kids like call numbers and I would say like, would, called it the not so secret secret code. of the library and teaching them all those little things. And like, you can crack the code. And once you know that, we made it in the sleuthy kind of thing. And the kids thought that that was really fun. And then I started doing a lot of text set work with kids. So for example, and I would try to use like multimodal text sets as well.
So I might have read the book, Jerry Changed the Game. about one of the first, the person who developed cartridges that could go into game systems. And there was also a doodle for Google about him and like, can we watch a video about Jerry? Can we, I'm reading you this book about Jerry, and then I'm starting to teach the kids about like the classification system based very big buckets. So putting that up on the screen and being like, huh, if I...
If I wanted to find more books about games, like where do you think they might be? And kids saying like, oh, I think they'll be in the 300s, I think they'll be in the 500s, you know, and why that, you know, like why? But then instead of just telling them saying, okay, pull out Destiny Discover, I want you to search for games. You know, I want you to search, scan the call numbers. What are you starting to notice?
And they're like, oh, you know, I'm starting to see like this and this, I'm like, well, go check on the shelf. You know, so making it an inquiry. making it an explanation, excuse me, like an activity and exploration. So now they know where the games are. They've now learned about the classification of games. They've also learned about this really cool software developer.
They've learned about the biography call number, you know, like so all of those different kinds of things, through using a text that, you know, I did similar thing like Snowflake Bentley, like we learned about his life. We learned about what that call number was. We looked at his actual book of snowflakes. you know, where might that be? You know, and then that day, you know, we made something out of snowflakes and, you know, kelo blocks just to keep things like really fun.
And that was an idea that I saw online. So trying to get kids up and moving. And instead of just like thinking about like that, walk, walk, walk kind of lecture, this is where you find it. Like, how can I find something that's interesting and match it together? So that's been my goal, you know, in thinking about like how this whole progression kind of fleshed out, know, is everyone a master at that yet? No, you know, but like, are they so much better and stronger? They are.
And can I tell you what the culminating activity was? Yeah, so I did, I got this idea from another librarian, like you said, like we love to share, I met a librarian named Gigi McAllister, we both write for an organization called Choice Literacy. So I met her at a writing retreat this summer and was just like so excited to be there with another librarian. And so every now and then she'll send me a note like, I tried this great thing.
So Gigi sent me this idea about the scavenger hunt that she did with her kids. And I'm like, this is it. This is the culminating activity. I'm also, I should say, I'm very, very fortunate. I have a full-time library assistant who is just an amazing human and a partner. And so she's just wonderful. I asked her if she, you know, I'm like, I've got this idea. And so what we did is found a list of books and she took it a step. Like I gave her the idea. We want a list of books.
I want to put the names of the books on index cards. And then the kids are going to have to use the catalog, look up the books, find the call number, and then go find the books on the shelf. This was Gigi's idea. And inside the book, there's going to be a sheet of stickers and the kids will take a sticker and put it on their sheet. Well, tada. Well, Jennifer, my assistant, who is amazing. She took it like another step.
And so she found like 35 books, but you couldn't tell what they were based on the title, which was so brilliant of her. like narrative non-fiction, know, non-fiction biographies, know, fiction books that sounded like non-fiction and from all the different areas of the library. So I did that with fifth graders. I didn't do it with all the grades yet because the other kids need some more time with those foundational skills. Mm-hmm. my gosh, these fifth graders were so excited about this.
I had a little stack of note cards, you know, and I said, I want you to find three. I had kids that found 20 books. it was, it was, it was bananas. They were so excited. I need another card. I had kids come in during recess time. Can I still do the cards? They were so excited. And it was like so cool because they were having fun, but really what they were learning by doing that obviously was like, They looked something up at the catalog. They had to think, how do I read that call number?
Where is that in the library? They had to use alphabetic order. They had to find it. They had to, how do we pull it off the shelf, put it back on? All of those little tiny nuts and bolts kind of things that you need to know. So that was really exciting. I think that was the progression in terms of, for me, about strengthening those skills and like, I'm sure that maybe there's probably more master, more senior librarians who are like, yep, yep, like I've done it, I've done it, I've done it.
But from somebody, you know, brand new, like that's my trajectory. Like what did I learn? And then how did I scaffold that? And then at the end, like, how was I able to, I didn't test it. It's not a grade, but I could see the excitement and engagement in the kiddos and like who actually needed help. Like there were a lot of kids were like, I can't find this. you know, when it was like, why couldn't they find it?
Was it somebody had put the book back on the wrong shelf or were they looking in the wrong area? So was like such a good way to gather informal anecdotal data to help guide me in my next steps. And like that I can even pull just like we do with reading and writing skills that need shoring up. Like I can pull a little small group. We like, Hey, you know, let's dive into like what this means. How can I help support you with that? And you know, more game-based ways to do that. awesome.
Man, I love the hands-on. Anytime we can get the kids, yeah. I mean, clearly the kids were digging it that they were coming in on recess to engage in this more. You can't get better. And it's interesting. like, this is so much nerdy library love. And they know when I say like nerdy, that like that is like a huge compliment. I'm like, I love all this nerdy library love. Like bring it. So awesome.
And it's funny, literally just before we jumped on this chat, had seen somebody had posted about, they were talking about the card catalog effect. And they were saying how like, back in their day, you'd have to, you know, look it up in the card catalog. And so to do that, you had to know what is my topic. And then when you looked it up, you had to know, okay, where do I find this call number that's on here?
And then you go to the call number and you find the book and you got to look through the book and find the information. most of the time that book didn't even have what you really needed, but you were able to look at the books around it and go, these books are sort of about the same topic, so let me see. And maybe the book didn't have what I needed, but it's got some other ideas for what I should be looking for.
And our students kind of have lost a lot of that sort of synchronicity of happening to find or, you know, coming across the things that they didn't know they needed. because now it's just, go straight to the thing. I look it up in a computer, the computer tells me and there's the answer and I'm done. And instead... efficient. It's much more efficient. It's not peeling that onion. Yes, yes, the discoveries along the way. Yeah, you're bringing them into that discovery.
Like you're getting them to talk about, why would this be in this section? Let's go see if we can find it. Look and see, like that's just such, it's good instruction, but it's so wonderful that your students are getting this opportunity to sort of explore the library and.
understand not just like here's a skill you're going to learn because you need it for the library and instead they're sort of exploring why this matters and how this impacts their impacts them directly when they go looking for information. So so wonderful. I love that you're doing that man. love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Oh, thanks for giving me a chance to talk about it. You can see like I get all like nerded. Like I said, nerdy is a good thing. It's so exciting.
And I just like, as you were talking about the card catalog, so we can be like, oh, like you and I did not think that was awesome when we were kids. But now, but now like when you say card catalog, like all these wait, like, oh, what I wouldn't give for one of those, you know. I actually found a card tucked in a book that was in my collection that was so old. It was the actual card. And I was like, look at this. So it's like, so funny.
We have like nostalgia for this thing that was, it was hard to do those, hard to do those things. But yeah, it did create this like web. It taught you like a habit of mind for sure. helped you learn how the library was organized and arranged and why it was organized and arranged that way. Like you kind of had to figure it out almost on your own. Like if you weren't having good library instruction, they might say, go to the catalog, look it up and then figure it out.
And it was sort of like, you're gonna pick up what you're gonna pick up. I don't know how to spell the word, we'll look it up. And you're like, what I, know, pachyderm, how do I, you know, like, how do I, you know, how do I look at that? Man, well, I love how you are really helping your students gain that independence and engaging them with the library space and helping them see the importance of these skills and having them actually use the skills rather than just saying, here's the skill.
Maybe six months from now, you'll use it. No, no, no, we're going to use it right now. We're going to take advantage of this. So that's awesome. It's just, it really. it really does warm my heart to hear how fortunate these students are that they're getting this kind of engagement and instruction. So on their behalf, I thank you, because it's really wonderful that you're doing this. So clearly your students have been getting a lot out of this that they're coming back.
And I'm just kind of curious, have you gotten any feedback from any of the teachers about the students taking part in the library since you've stepped in? I have, it's been really wonderful, you know, there's been a big physical change in the library. You know, like I moved the furniture around. I was able to ask the district at the end of last year when there was, know, sometimes there's end of year funds. We did not have a snowy year last year, very different than this winter.
But in one of my classes, we had to do a library redesign, including like we had to make a scale floor print. And we were supposed to use an older library, but I got permission to do the library in my school for my professor. And so I redesigned the library. my library, it's only this is its third year. So we had a building renovation redesign. And so some of it was renovated and some of it was added on. So my library is actually a brand new space and it is very large and it was very empty.
There was not a lot, it was not cozy. So like I said, the first thing the kids noticed, I was able to get some new, really super engaging, not all new, but a couple of really important pieces and also think about back to that K-8 discussion, like I got some high tops and those are only for middle school kids. So the first thing is that kids notice that change and... teachers of the older kiddos were coming and saying like the kids really love the space.
They love the space and the kids were giving me that type of feedback as well. But it's been really nice to have the kids are really, mean, kids don't have filters oftentimes. They just tell you like, we don't like this or we like this. The kids by and large have been really happy. And I've had a couple of really nice notes from families telling me how much their kids love.
the library and you those are gold you know when you get a note like that you know like those are just gold and that just means so so much so I know when you have a bad day yeah yeah but it's like you know it's like there can be a hundred good things and as educators we'll focus on the one thing that's bad So I feel like that's something that comes with time to know like, okay, this is one thing.
So I'm taking a really long time to answer your question in that, yes, the kids do seem happy and I have kids and grownups have been telling me about that. The fifth graders did a do a journalism unit and I had so many kids coming and interviewing me about the library this year and writing pieces about the library. And that felt so great, you know, that they wanted to have that be the thing that they wanted to write their feature article about. That's awesome, man.
a former literacy coordinator, I knew what that unit was about, you know, and what the goals for that unit were. So to know that they wanted to come back and have that be the topic. That's so cool. Like, it's just really neat. And it's really neat to see too, as the former literacy coordinator, you know, who really believes in choice and voice and agency and all of those things and kiddos to see how much kids do love books and love to read.
And I'm like, that's a result of a... know, families who are doing that work at home with their kids, but also the rich experiences that our teachers are giving kids, you know, and that like, nobody does any of this stuff in a vacuum, you know, that readers, there's a lot, it takes a lot of people to grow a reader, you know, and not just like the skills that kids need, but that love of reading and the ability to talk about books and have a reading identity, like. It's really neat.
It's just so neat to see it all together. I feel so grateful. I feel really grateful. Yeah, man, it's so great. I'm kind of curious, in doing the lessons that you've been doing, you had kind of, I think you kind of touched on this, but I'm just curious if there's any more detail that you might be able to share.
You had sort of talked about how some of your students have more skills, some of them have fewer skills, and so you were able to pull different types of stacks of books for them to sort of look at in terms of sorting and figuring out what goes first, what goes second. I imagine as you're doing that kind of thing, that really lends itself really well to differentiating for not just grades, but for students who might have, you know, fewer knowledge and skill, you know?
Do you have, is there, do you have an ELL population or English language learners that you are doing this with? We do not have, we absolutely have English language learners. Not a large portion of our population, but we absolutely do.
And so that's why I've tried to like thinking about visuals that we have, like what I said, like the alphabet strip, which is going to be linked into the little resource, the page I'm going to give to you that you can share so that everyone has access to that, not just. while certain kids, like everyone has access to that. How do we do that?
And then thinking about some of my students, you know, who have IEPs with specific goals, like this work is going to be easier if I focus it on a topic that I know you are interested in. So if I know, for example, that you are a big cat kind of person, then I can curate a little tiny text set for you of big cats and I can have. cheetah, lion, leopard, no, and I might not even do lion and leopard, you know, if we're only working on first letter.
But you know, that type of thing where I can tailor it to something that you're very interested in and that you're going to be excited about to get that engagement up. You know, and some kids might have fewer books in their stack. And I tried to be really mindful when I did do fewer books in the stack that I chose fatter books so that the actual height of the stack Ooh, right. It's like everybody's stack is kind of the same.
And that it wasn't like everybody, you know, just being mindful about the optics of those kinds of things, because kids know kids absolutely know and or, you know, a kid who might have graphic novels or I'm sure you are too, like those are hot. Those are hot, hot, hot. You know, so it's like a kid that you know is going to be more resistant to doing this task.
you can have graphic novels and like you're gonna do that with the graphic novels in your set and like that's gonna be cool because you're gonna want to look at those. And obviously I wanted this to happen but some kids they were be doing that activity and they're like can I check this book out?
And I'm like yes, you know so you know I would just have to make a metal note like get another book into that stack but like that was part of that as well like kind of like a sneaky way to like how do I get kids to touch more books or books that they might not. touch on their own. But definitely like lots of different ways to differentiate. And like I said, I'm always going to try to lead with engagement. Like how can I make like, what's my skill? And then how can I make that engaging?
How can I make kids want to do this? Right, right. So this being your first year, this is your first go through on this. Are there any things that as you went through it, you were like, no for next time, I got to remember to X, Y, Z, like anything that sort of was a good reflection moment to say, you know what? We make a little adjustment here next time around. Yeah, I feel like I'm doing that all the time.
And I love that little, that's like, you know, when you have three sections of a grade level. So then you see, you know, sometimes four, you know, three or four, depending on the grade level, you know, the first time you do it, you know, I'm like, you know, like that didn't go very well. Like I can tweak it for the next one. You know, I can tweet like, okay, I went to the third letter too fast on this one, tweak, tweak, tweak.
So I feel like I'm constantly like, tweaking and you know taking notes. I've got a pretty elaborate spreadsheet about like what I teach and like little notes for myself about how to make it better. So I feel like that's just a constant ongoing thing and I feel I feel grateful that comes from having been a teacher for a long time and so that I'm not having to become a new librarian and a new teacher all at the same time and not like I'm the best teacher in the world.
I'm not saying that but like I'm a very reflective practitioner, you know, and as someone who's led that kind of work, a lot of my organizational systems and structures, like I have a lot of those in place and I'm just layering like what the content is. And just what I'm saying, like I'm not, I'm like starting sometimes with, so let me say it this way in a more clear way. I'm starting from scratch with a content, but I have some systems and structures in place to help me manage that. content.
Totally, no, that totally makes sense. So lots of stuff, lots of stuff to think about. And you've got this amazing list of things that you have discussed with us that have got links to, here's how others can do this too. So if people want to sort of reproduce, this is great. I mean, this is such a wonderful share that you were doing here. So I think we are at the point where we're take a 90 degree turn and go into our book break. I love the book break, yay.
So. okay share, personal, professional, whatever, for the students, for yourself, whatever you got, what are you bringing for us? my gosh. my gosh. So, I'm doing so many audio books. I'm listening to as many audio middle grade audio books as I can, because kids are coming to me for recommendations and I want to be like, be able to say like, I've read this book. It's beautiful. It's lovely. And that is so exciting. a lot of kids want fantasy and that is not my genre.
I'm going to say, so I'm really pushing myself, to read more fantasy and So one of the books that I wanna share is called Impossible Creatures by Catherine Rundell. I'm not all the way through yet, but if you could see it, first of all, it's just gorgeous. The lettering on the, it's so beautiful.
the book and she's showing me the cover and I literally this morning, one of my students had that book on a table across the library and I could see all these colors and I didn't know what the book was and I didn't get a chance to ask him. That's the book. That is so weird. That's the book. it's so good. And so I started listening to it on audio.
And it was one of those books that as I was driving, there were passages that I was like, literally caught my, made me catch my breath because the writing is so beautiful. And can I just read you like a couple of those? Do you mind? All right, so this is on page 59. It says, some sentences have the power to change everything. There are the usual suspects. I love you. I hate you. I'm pregnant. I'm dying. I regret to tell you that this country is at war.
But the words with the greatest power to create both havoc and marvels are these. I need your help. Hmm. My gosh. So this book has beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I'm gonna read you one more. Can I? Can I read you one more? Yeah, yeah. But Christopher didn't have the words then to explain what nonetheless he knew that sometimes if you are among the very lucky, a spark of understanding cuts like lightning across the space between two people.
It's a defibrillator for the heart and it toughens you, it nourishes you and the word we've chosen for it, which is an insignificant word for being so abruptly upended in a new and finer place is friendship. So, it's this story about these mythical creatures that are I just can't and it's just so it and then it has these poignant little like life Proverbs sprinkled in and the book itself is beautiful.
The cover is beautiful The paper on the edges is red and it's beautiful the illustrations in the back about all of these different mythical creatures Which thank goodness some of them were there because I didn't know them. So I'm actually just loving this and it's so good for me as someone who's like, fantasy, yeah. I'm absolutely loving this book. It's exciting to talk to kids about it. I actually have my library's copy right now because I'm on break so I can finish it.
But when kids come in and say, I love that book and to remind myself how important it is to push myself out. that is my. Book break impossible creatures and the good news is that it is it is the first is going to be I'm not I'm not quite sure I read and I'm not I don't want to say it and say it wrong But like there's going to be another one and we know how much kids love series so highly recommend man, huh, that is amazing. That's like such serendipity that, so strange, but so wonderful.
Well, that's definitely going on the short list now. And now I've got something to talk to the student about too. So this is great. Man, well, thank you so much, Gwen. of writing, those pieces of writing, like you got, beautiful. And the whole book isn't like that. It's just like, all of a sudden it just drops you into this, like I said, takes your breath away. It's just so beautifully written. Man, all right, well that's going way up the list then. That's definitely on my short list now.
Huh, well thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time to come and share and sharing not just great activities and ideas and ways to help us get our students engaged and really connecting with the space, but also a great book that we obviously are gonna need to all go and check out. So thank you so much. It's really wonderful of you to do this. Thank you for having me. it's just like, I think I might have said like happy or joy so many times during this time.
Like I'm so excited to be a school librarian and to be able to talk to you about this, you know, as a fellow newer, fellow newer-ish librarian. And then hopefully, you know, maybe people will find me either on Blue Sky or Instagram. As a result of this, I'm just so excited to connect with more people and to do more of this kind of sharing. And there's some tough stuff that's going on with libraries and things like that.
So we need each other so that we can continue to lean into this work for all children and making sure that all kids, they feel seen and heard and. represented and so like we've got to lift each other up like librarians we need each other. 100%. So where are people gonna find you online? Where do you want them to reach out to you? Yeah, so I am most active on Instagram and I am at Gwen Blumberg, G-W-E-N-B-L-U-M-B-E-R-G. And I have hopped over to Blue Sky, so I'm really just getting started there.
So those are the two main places to find me. I have a link tree on both of those as well with links to some things more of the things that are there more related to when I was a literacy coordinator. you know, like a YouTube channel and some writing that I do for choice literacy, although I'm beginning to write from a library lens now, so blue sky and Instagram. And then, you I said my link tree is there if you want to see any of the other stuff that I have been up to. Awesome.
Well, thank you again. I greatly appreciate your time and your sharing with us and I'm glad that we got to have this conversation. Yay! Thank you so much!